Audit Flaws Revealed, at Long Last | The Fox was in the HEN house.

With hindsight, we now know that auditors in 2007 should have been looking carefully at bank books.

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

Barry Salzberg, the former chief of Deloitte, responded to an overseer's criticism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/business/deloittes-failings-revealed-but-only-after-3-years.html?src=recg

"They should have drilled into allowances for loan losses, and they should have been especially alert for signs that the banks were playing games when they sold loans. Auditors should have carefully reviewed how the banks were valuing their mortgage-backed securities and loans that they planned to sell."

Who is "THEY"?

DOH!


Total Hint: Look at the Business Model. i.e. "How do "they" make money?"

American Spring

"This government, we must chant, is corrupt. We can say that clearly and loudly from the left. They can say that clearly and loudly from the Right. And then we must teach America that this corruption is the core problem -- it is the root problem -- that we as Americans must be fighting."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-lessig/a-letter-to-the-occupiers_b_1007459.html


"It all started with an e-mail. On July 13 Adbusters magazine sent out a call to its 90,000-strong list proclaiming a Twitter hashtag (#OccupyWallStreet) and a date, September 17. It quickly spread among the mostly young, tech-savvy radical set, along with an especially alluring poster the magazine put together of a ballerina atop the Charging Bull statue, the financial district's totem to testosterone."


http://www.npr.org/2011/10/19/141501013/the-nation-from-wall-street-to-everywhere

http://thedianerehmshow.org/audio-player?nid=14861

What it has become is a dialogue. Democracy at work.

Banks’ Self-Dealing Super-Charged Financial Crisis | Propublica

Over the last two years of the housing bubble, Wall Street bankers perpetrated one of the greatest episodes of self-dealing in financial history.

Faced with increasing difficulty in selling the mortgage-backed securities that had been among their most lucrative products, the banks hit on a solution that preserved their quarterly earnings and huge bonuses:

They created fake demand.


http://www.propublica.org/article/banks-self-dealing-super-charged-financial-crisis

The CDO Daisy Chain | Probublica

Here's how the Wall Street Money Machine worked in the run-up to the financial collapse: Banks created CDOs from mortgage-backed securities. Banks often retained the large top portion, called the "Super Senior." The bottom portion, or "Equity," was often sold off to hedge funds. The middle portion, or "Mezzanine," often went into new CDOs. The main buyers of those new CDOs were once again the banks.

http://www.propublica.org/special/the-cdo-daisy-chain

The Long Con... Scolding Minnows

Tracking Financial Crisis Cases

Very few cases related to the financial crisis have been brought against executives at large companies, and the ones that have been involved are almost entirely civil fraud, rather than criminal allegations. Here are the prominent cases so far. In many of them, the government negotiated a settlement with the defendants before it even filed a complaint, then announced both the case and settlement at the same time.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/financial-crisis-cases.html?ref=business

A Compelling Dosey-Doe | Time to move the burden from the taxpayer to the culprit

Interesting concept... from last week's Business Week:

"Blinder thinks the Fed is being "a little too passive."
 
He wants the Fed to cut to zero the rate it pays banks on the excess reserves it holds for them. That would remove banks' incentive to park money with the Fed. Even better, says Blinder, the Fed could effectively charge banks for holding their reserves by paying a negative interest rate. 

 More likely is that Bernanke will keep short-term interest rates, now around 0.25 percent, at that low level for even longer. "It is becoming increasingly likely that the Fed will be on hold until 2013," says Perli. 

What Now, Ben Bernanke?

Too Big to Fail | The Movie...

HBO pulls off a simplification that Saints Paulson inappropriately, but actually does a relatively good job of distilling Sorkin's masterful epic of investigative reporting into something the average American might be able to understand... In a 'nut shell' the 'shit' hit the fan. The Government grasped for straws, and this was the result. And, if you're keeping score the hits keep coming.



Watch in its entirety HERE:

http://www.letmewatchthis.ch/watch-2723367-Too-Big-to-Fail

Official SITE:

http://www.hbo.com/movies/too-big-to-fail/inside/video/video/trailer.html#/movies/too-big-to-fail/index.html

Tracking U.S. Monthly Unemployment

 

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/03/99136097/tracking-u-s-monthly-unemployment

 

Nothing to see, move along... they passed the 'stress test'... Banks ripped US off, news? Verification or Vindication? Remains to be seen.

Confidential Federal Audits Accuse Five Biggest Mortgage Firms Of Defrauding Taxpayers

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/16/foreclosure-fraud-audit-false-claims-act_n_862686.html

"The False Claims Act allows the government to recover damages worth three times the actual harm plus additional penalties."

Double Dip in Housing, Could Double Dip Recession Be Next?

Double Dip in Housing, Could Double Dip Recession Be Next?

Excellent illustration of Buyer Power.


Forbes

Jon Stewart suggests that Elizabeth Warren's Agency should be placed on the Terrorist Watch List!

If you want to ID consumate evil just look for the politicians who oppose her nomination, take note at the next election, and act accordingly. Meanwhile watch America's Wealth consolidate to thieves and crooks via usury.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Elizabeth Warren
www.thedailyshow.com
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Matt Taibbi: "Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?"

Matt Taibbi: "Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?" (Complete Interview)

Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?

Financial crooks brought down the world's economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them

 Full Story

So... Let me get this right... Uhm, We're fcucked!

... and not in the really cool UK Fashion scene sense... i.e. FCUK:

Quantitative Easing, Inflation & Europe in Trouble

QE3 Pretty Much a Certainty if these hacks say it isn't...

For instance Mishkin of Columbia U, (in the glasses with the smug countenance on the left, below) wrote the infamous 'everything is fine in Iceland' White Paper featuring the word 'stability' in the title & changed it to 'instability' on his CV... after the fact (i.e. the collapse of all three Icelandic banks) - while not disclosing he was paid 124k for the original piece... Ethics in Academia? But more importantly, is he credible?

House of Junk

Junk Mortgages under the Microscope

A close-up of one deal shows how subprime mortgages went bad, says Fortune's Allan Sloan.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/15/markets/junk_mortgages.fortune/index.htm

Double Dip possible? It's Already Happening.

A Double-Dip for the Housing Market?

 The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/a-double-dip-for-the-housing-market/68663/ 

Double-Dip In Housing Almost Here, According To

Case-Shiller Index

Forbes

http://blogs.forbes.com/afontevecchia/2010/12/28/double-dip-in-housing-almost-here-according-to-case-shiller-index/?boxes=financechannelforbes